American Heritage Dictionary Entry: quote HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com quote (kwōt) Share: Tweet v. quot·ed, quot·ing, quotes v.tr. 1. a. To repeat or copy (words from a source such as a book), usually with acknowledgment of the source: quoted lines from Shakespeare in his lecture. b. To repeat or copy the words of (a person or a book or other source): likes to quote Shakespeare when giving advice. c. To cite or refer to for illustration or proof: quoted statistics to show she was right. 2. To repeat a brief passage or excerpt from: The saxophonist quoted a Duke Ellington melody in his solo. 3. To state (a price) for securities, goods, or services. v.intr. To give a quotation, as from a book. n. 1. A quotation. 2. A quotation mark. 3. Used by a speaker to indicate the beginning of a direct quotation: "He paused and said, quote, I don't care, unquote." 4. A dictum; a saying. [Middle English coten, to mark a book with numbers or marginal references, from Old French coter, from Medieval Latin quotāre, to number chapters, from Latin quotus, of what number, from quot, how many; see kwo- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] quoter n. Usage Note: People have been using the noun quote as a truncation of quotation for over one hundred years, and its use in less formal contexts is widespread today. Language critics have objected to this usage, however, as unduly journalistic or breezy, but the word appears to have gained acceptance. In our 2009 survey, 80 percent of the Usage Panel accepted the example He began the chapter with a quote from the Bible. The same percentage accepted He lightened up his talk by throwing in quotes from Marx Brothers movies. These results represent a much higher level of acceptance than in previous surveys. · People sometimes use quote as a synonym for "a dictum; a saying," as in His career is just one more validation of Andy Warhol's quote that "In the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes." A majority of the Panel (albeit a smaller one) accepts this usage, too. In 2009, 60 percent accepted the Andy Warhol example. This is a dramatic increase over the mere 24 percent that accepted the same sentence in 1988. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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